In an act of online activism, Childish Gambino fans are reclaiming the r/Donald subreddit

Until last week, r/thedonald was a subreddit where Reddit users gathered to share posts related to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Despite the subreddit’s description as “the place where we discuss in an unbiased manner Donald Trump’s great contributions to modern society,” the page is littered by hate-filled posts from people who look to Trump as a twisted savior of sorts, sent to save the American public from its diversity thugs.

Over the past week, however, fans of Donald Glover have taken the subreddit page by storm, posting memes and photos of the actor/rapper in a collective effort to reclaim “the Donald” name. At the very least, the move is a response to Childish Gambino‘s potent, racially charged “This is America” music video release. At best, it’s a form on online activism. And the most wonderful part is — it’s actually working. The subreddit page is now almost solely devoted to Childish Gambino/Donald Glover.

The following post, for instance, has been upvoted more than 45,000 times.

The hope is that if enough Donald Glover fans start posting on r/the_donald, they can reclaim this subreddit as well. In a world where activism can take many forms, users of social media are realizing the digital domain as a space for creating First Amendment political movements and reclaiming hateful digital spaces as places of empowerment.